


montgomery forever

by academmia



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom
Genre: Angst, Bittersweet, Character Study, Gen, Mental Health Issues, Niki | Nihachu-centric, Realistic Minecraft, Songfic, implications of unreality, niki and wilbur are going through it and tommy is just snoring living his best life, niki deserves better i will die on this hill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-16 23:47:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29708382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/academmia/pseuds/academmia
Summary: And a long time ago, I promised that if you were happy, then I was happy. Nothing else to talk about.Niki should kill Tommy.She's planned it for weeks, she's standing over Tommy's sleeping body with a knife, this is her chance.“Nice night for a murder,” Wilbur says.Niki has no idea how he got in here. She thinks she might be going insane.OR: on the night Niki plans to kill Tommy, Wilbur shows up too. It's complicated
Relationships: Niki | Nihachu & Wilbur Soot
Comments: 14
Kudos: 73





	montgomery forever

**Author's Note:**

> this is inspired by the song Montogmery forever by the front bottoms, I highly recommend it while reading this fic. I threw some of the lyrics into the story(they're in italics) 
> 
> DISCLAIMER: this is fully platonic, and fully about the characters Wilbur and Niki play, not the real people. None of this is romantic nor speculative about the real people

Niki should kill Tommy. 

That was the plan. That was the plan since L’Manburg blew up and Niki set the L’mantree on fire. The burning leaves crackled, the smoke rose into the air. She heard Dream laughing, she smelled the TNT in the air. She watched from the sidelines. Her chest burned. It was his fault. It was Tommy’s fault. It had to be Tommy’s fault that everything was gone. He was always blowing shit up and doing everything without thinking. He needed to learn his lesson. 

Jack didn’t understand her. Jack wanted to kill Tommy for political reasons, Niki wanted to for personal reasons. She shook Jack’s hand weeks ago, and they agreed to work together. Niki crossed her fingers behind her back. She was going to be the one to kill Tommy, that was the only option. She distracted Jack. She went over to Tommy’s house with homemade cookies filled with sleeping potion. Within minutes Tommy was out like a light, passed out on his bed without changing his clothes. He wouldn’t even feel it. 

Planning to kill someone and standing over his sleeping body with a knife were too different things, Niki realized belatedly. 

_ 'Cause we used to live here ('cause we used to live here) _

_ And now they're blowing it up (now they're blowing it up) _

She gripped the knife in her fist, raised it up. Tommy snored loudly, blanket fisted in his hand. He just wouldn’t shut up, not even when he was sleeping. There was a picture on his nightstand. The five of them, Wilbur, Niki, Tommy, Fundy and Tubbo, all in matching L’Manburg uniforms. Tommy had a wide smile. Wilbur had his arm wrapped around Niki’s shoulders. Fundy was laughing. The five of them, on top of the world. 

_ You started crying (you started crying) _

_ As I was blowing it up _

Oh, how the mighty had fallen. What a mess they were. Fundy was lost, wandering from place to place, not belonging anywhere. Niki hadn’t seen him since Doomsday. Tubbo, building nuclear weapons late into the night because he couldn’t protect Snowchester without it. Red eyes with bags under them, and a tired smile. There were no beehives in Snowchester. Wilbur, her friend, her general, the man who once protected them, had blown L’Manburg up and died with it. Wilbur, dead and gone, alive and screaming every time she closed her eyes. Tommy, once a child, now the soldier, fucking up everything. Niki, who had gone from laughing at Tommy’s stupid jokes to standing over him with a knife. 

_ Montgomery forever, and ever, and ever _

_ Now they're blowing it up _

  
  


She wanted to kill him. She did, she should want it-everything would be fixed if she could just be stronger and drive the blade down. They would call her the hero, lift their arms in the air and cheer her name, and when she talked people would care about what she had to say as if she were Tommy. She would be the one to interrupt people, and she would become so good people would stop laughing. She would finally stop wandering around her library, hollow walls, and looming shadows that looked like men long gone from the living world. Take blood instead of losing it. The roar in her ears would go quiet. She’s given up on happiness, but not on justice. Someone needed to pay for the blood pounded into the dirt. 

The torches in Tommy’s house flickered. She felt like someone was watching her, but no footsteps could be heard. The air was stuffy and hot. The silence was suffocating. Niki’s eyes burned. 

Tommy continued his oblivious snoring. He had messy blonde hair and a band-aid over his nose. From her angle, from the angle of a killer, he looked too small. Far too small to deserve this. 

_ Montgomery forever, and ever, and ever _

_ Now they're blowing it up _

Niki shook her head. Now was not the time for second thoughts. That’s what Sam would tell her. Sam, righteous and just and oh so  _ clueless.  _

“Nice night for a murder,” 

And  _ oh  _ did Niki could recognize that voice from anywhere. She could hear the cocky smile and the eyebrow raise without turning around. Wilbur. Wilbur who loved her, Wilbur who left her, Wilbur who went crazy and blew himself up with a country she had fallen in love with. Wilbur who was looking at her with tired eyes and a white scar running down his face. Wilbur, wearing a yellow sweater, black jeans, and red converse. Wilbur, sitting at Tommy’s table, when Niki was so sure she was the only one here. It was funny, in a way. 

“You’re dead,” She said, voice shaking. 

_ 'Cause we used to live here _

“Are you sure about that?”

_ And now they're blowing it up (now they're blowing it up) _

“Yes!” She shouted, halfway to sobbing, halfway to laughing. “You’re dead! You’re not real! You left me, you’re gone, you, you-” 

“I What?” Wilbur said. 

And oh, Niki must be really going insane now because Wilbur was looking at her like he used to, with care and concern. Wilbur didn’t look like that. Wilbur was dead.  _ Wilbur was dead. _

“Niki-,” 

“I-you, you’re not,” She said, and her chest felt tight just like the air in Tommy’s stupid wooden house. He hadn’t even bothered to give his house a real floor

“Niki, breathe,” Wilbur said, in a voice that sounded too much like a command. 

Wilbur didn’t get to tell her shit. Wilbur didn’t get to leave and die and let her rot and have the audacity to pretend like she’s the crazy one. Wilbur didn’t get to tell her to calm down, not today. 

“Just shut up!” She snapped, “You aren’t real,” 

“Aren’t I?” 

Wilbur stayed in his chair, tapping his fingers on the wooden table. Niki blinked. He didn’t go away, he was still there, and Niki didn’t know if that made it worse or better. She thinks she might be going insane.

Niki was so angry. It’s all that’s been keeping her going for weeks. Some nights spite was the only reason she wasn’t dead. Because when she was angry that’s all she was. She couldn’t be scared or tired or crazy when she was angry. She couldn’t break when she was angry. She didn’t have time to think about Wilbur when she was angry. She was driven, she had a goal. She was going to kill Tommyinnit and it was going to feel good. 

Standing in his room, with Wilbur watching her from the table, and Tommy’s snores in her ears, Niki didn’t feel good. 

She caught her reflection in the mirror. There were dark bags under her eyes. Her hair was frazzled and uneven. She didn’t remember the last time she changed clothes. Her bottom lip was bleeding. 

Niki was tired. Shattered into a million pieces by war and broken promises. She didn’t think she would be put together again. A few weeks ago Tommy told her she sounded like Wilbur. She knows why Tommy didn’t mean it as a compliment. 

“Are you going to kill him?” 

“Do you want me to?” 

“No,” Wilbur said, “He might be an annoying prick who starts far too many fights but he’s my brother, he’s just a kid,” 

_ Just a kid. _ , 

“What about me?” Niki whispers 

“What about you?” 

“I’m just a kid. I turned 19 dirt poor in a country that didn’t give a shit about me.” 

Being an adult was supposed to be better. On Niki’s 19th birthday she was rationing her food out because Schlatt was coming to collect taxes and Niki was running out of things to give him. On Niki’s 19th birthday she counted her ribs and made cakes she couldn’t afford to eat. She spent the day alone because Wilbur had better things to do than spend it with her. 

Wilbur was in Pogtopia, and Niki was in Manburg. There was always something more important than her. She knew it was selfish, she knew they were fighting for something bigger than themselves, but once, just once Niki wanted someone to pick her first.

You turn eighteen and people think you’re an adult and they tell you to be better than the kids. The kids are two years younger than you and no one gives a fuck about the little girl with flour covered hands who got lost in the bloodshed. 

“I didn’t know that,” Wilbur says quietly. 

_ Montgomery forever _

“Of course you didn’t,” She says bitterly.

_ Montgomery forever _

“I’m sorry Niki,” 

Niki presses her nails into her palms, forming shaking fists. 

“You hurt me,” Niki says, and she finally meets Wilbur’s eyes, “You hurt me so badly I don’t think I’ll ever be the same,” 

Wilbur looks sad.  _ Good _ , one part of Niki hisses, the angry, broken, lonely part, _he deserves it_. Another part of her, the baker, the friend, the girl who believed in kindness above all else feels sad right along with him. 

Wilbur hums, “You know when I was a ghost, Tommy and Tubbo had a fight.” 

“What does that have to do with anything?” 

“Tubbo told Tommy that if he couldn’t be the next Schlatt, Tommy couldn’t be the next Wilbur. Tommy didn’t become the next Wilbur, he’s always been the first Tommy,” Wilbur says, looking over at Tommy, pride shining in his eyes, “But they never considered you did they?” 

Wilbur looks at her like he’s solved a challenging puzzle. Niki looks over at Tommy, still snoring, and she feels as small as he looks. 

“What is that supposed to mean?” 

“Oh, come off it Niki,” Will says, “You’re even Wearing my jacket,” 

Tears started spilling down her face, despite her best efforts. Niki didn’t know she still had the ability to cry. She hates how human Willbur makes her, how quick he can burst through the walls Niki has spent so long crafting to protect herself. She hates how he can hurt her so much and she still misses him so much. 

She hates Wilbur. She loves his jacket. She loves the way she keeps finding new pockets, she loves the way it falls just 2 inches above her ankles. She likes how it makes people turn and look and she likes the old L’Manburg patch. It’s a dead nation, remembered only by broken people but Niki likes what it originally stood for. She likes having rebellion stitched onto her sleeve. 

In the dark of her library, when no one is around, she has Will’s jacket. She wraps it around her shoulders as she screams, her cries echoing through the empty library. It keeps her warm on the cold nights and when she can't breathe she rubs the fabric of it in between her fingers. 

She’s exactly like him. The dead bastard in front of her is right, Niki is just as paranoid, just as broken, just as angry, and just as cold. Three months ago if you told her there was a button to blow up L’Manburg, Niki would have said no without a second thought. Today, if you told her there was a button that could blow the entire world up, she would hit it. 

_ ‘Cause you started crying, and laughing, and trying to explain how all you wanna do is leave _

She thinks about the girl with bright eyes and a warm smile. The girl who baked cookies for her friends and refused to learn how to fight because she believed in more than violence. She thinks about the girl who saw kindness as easy as breathing, she thinks about the girl who loved her country so much she was willing to walk through hell and back. 

She wonders when that girl died. She wonders how the hell it came to this: standing over Tommy, a teenager, with a knife as his dead brother watched her. 

Tommy was her friend. She liked him, she trusted him. She can’t remember why that changed. 

Maybe she hates Tommy because every time he speaks she hears someone else. Maybe she hates Tommy because he always got Wilbur’s time of day and Wilbur never bothered to tell her goodbye. Maybe she hates Tommy because they’re so much more similar than she’s willing to admit. 

_ Montgomery forever, and ever, and ever _

Maybe she’s falling apart. Maybe this conversation isn’t even real. 

_ Now they're blowing it up _

Seeing the two of them, both in the same room, Niki knows why she hates Tommy. She hates Tommy because Wilbur isn’t around for her to hate. Wilbur is watching her, waiting for her to do something. Her hands tremble. Her breathing is tight and her chest aches. She wishes he would tell her she deserved better. She wishes he would take the knife from her and twirl her around under the stars. She wishes he could just stay dead. She wishes she wasn’t so fucked up. The nostalgia and the hatred fill up the entire room. It’s fitting. Wilbur commanded the space of every single room he walked into. 

Niki walks towards the table where Wilbur sits and sets her knife down on the table. Wilbur looks at it in surprise and then looks back up at her. He takes the knife. Niki shoves her hands in her pockets, taking a deep breath. 

“It doesn’t matter anymore,” 

Killing Tommy won’t solve her problems. The anger has cooled into something more tragic. Acceptance. If killing Tommy won’t save her, she doesn’t think anything can now. 

Niki looks back up at Wilbur. A few strands of her hair fall in front of her face. Maybe she won’t ever be okay again. 

Niki looks over at Tommy. He has no clue what happened in this room, and he probably never will. Wilbur looks at her, pride mixed with something Niki can’t quite recognize. The corners of her mouth twitch up. It’s not a smile, but it’s not a frown either.

Niki goes to leave. As she reaches for the door handle Wilbur stands up. She turns around, the two of them facing each other. He’s still taller. 

“See you around Nihachu,” He says, raising his hand in a salute.

“See you around Wilbur Soot,” She says, and after a second of hesitation, she salutes him back. For a second, the two of them ignore the fact that salutes always end in tragedy. 

As she leaves, a small smile tugs on the corner of her lips, the night air smells like smoke and wind blows through her hair. When she turns to look back, the barren house is empty. 

  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> oh boy I hoped you guys enjoyed that! ive been looking at this so much i can't tell if it's complete shit or great writing and i got sick of looking at it. If you couldn't tell, I have so many thoughts about c!Niki and c!Wilbur hehe
> 
> I'm not sure if Wilbur was there or if Niki was imagining him, so I left it open to interpretation, both ideas are very interesting :)


End file.
